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HealthAlliance, local leaders spar over gathering on proposed cuts

By Peter Jasinski, pjasinski@sentinelandenterprise.com

Updated:
08/31/2018 08:53:47 AM EDT

LEOMINSTER -- Responding to Wednesday's public demonstration against the proposed discontinuation of some services provided by UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital, the health care provider has asked the public to discontinue holding similar events in the future on its campus.

"We continue to be attentive to the voices in the community expressing concern over proposed closure of services currently before the Department of Public Health," wrote hospital spokesman Tony Berry. "However, we advise against any public demonstrations on ours, or any hospital campus."

In attendance Wednesday were about 20 local elected officials, patients and current hospital nursing staff, all opposed to the closures of the inpatient pediatric unit, cardiac rehabilitation unit and pulmonary rehabilitation unit in Leominster, as well as the urgent care center at the hospital's Fitchburg campus.

Leominster City Councilor Sue Chalifoux Zephir said Thursday that the event was a press conference and did not constitute a protest.

"I think protest is not at all the correct characterization of what we did," she said. "It was a press conference."

Opponents to the closures congregated on the North Main Street sidewalk outside HealthAlliance Wednesday evening. They remained there less than an hour while several Leominster police officers monitored the demonstration.

"This creates an unnecessary disruption to the operations of a hospital and is unfair to the patients and their families," Berry wrote in the hospital's statement. "We (had) not given approval for this event and (had) not been officially contacted by organizers seeking permission.

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Though the group originally congregated on the hospital's front lawn Wednesday evening, they moved to the nearby public sidewalk after a few minutes.

Leominster state Rep. Natalie Higgins, who spoke out against the closures Wednesday, said on Thursday she was disappointed that HealthAlliance thought the "press conference" was inappropriate or disruptive.

"Their threats are abhorrent and show a total lack of understanding of what this community has so clearly tried to communicate to them," she said in a statement issued Thursday. "If HealthAlliance would like us to stop speaking out and bringing attention to these impending closures, they can do the right thing and keep these vital services in our communities."

Fitchburg Mayor Stephen DiNatale, another attendee, said on Thursday he understood the hospital's safety concerns but pointed out that the majority of Wednesday's activities were spent off the hospital's campus.

"I don't believe we were disrupting any of the hospital's operations. I know we weren't," he said. "In this particular instance, it's a gathering of citizens carried out on a public way and that is certainly acceptable and not illegal."

The pending closures were motivated by low patient volumes, which the hospital's administration maintains have declined steadily for each service in the past few years.

"This is a loud and clear message that these services do not reflect the current needs of the community. Just like any other successful service or business, we are continually evaluating the match between what services we offer and what services the community needs," wrote Berry.

In place of these services, the hospital plans to reroute patients to other units on-campus, like the emergency department, or elsewhere in the community, such as separate urgent care centers owned by UMass Memorial Health Care.

However, members of the community have argued these are services they need and state health officials have agreed with them, at least as far as the inpatient pediatric unit. The Department of Public Health labeled the unit an essential service after gathering testimony from local residents, however the state has no legal authority to stop its closure, or the closure of any of the other services at-risk.

Per the state's requirements, the hospital is required to go through a 120-day closure process with DPH before any of the services can be discontinued. As the hospital first notified the state of the pending closures in early July, the earliest any of the services could be closed is the beginning of November.

"We want to reassure our community and the Department of Public Health that we have a plan in place that covers the health care needs of this community once these closures will go into effect," wrote Berry.

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